Overbaked & Underproofed

How big or small is the judges’ vocabulary when they evaluate the bakes? How frequently do “overbaked” & “underproofed” show up? In what ways is the judges’ narrow evaluative vocabulary actually associated with the show’s appeal and success?

If you have been wondering about these things, or you are the kind of person who could be wondering about these things,
we have answers!

We use text analysis to explore how the GBBS paradoxically uses limited judging language to inspire and expand its transnational fanbase.

Project Manager: Maria Baker

Maria is a multigenre/cross-genre writer who frequently works with photography and loves to repurpose utilitarian text forms such as questionnaires, reviews, and manuals as sites of non/fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute, where she now teaches a Pratt Integrative Course focusing on interdisciplinary modes of storytelling and creative strategies. She leads a community writing project for older adults in Clinton Hill and also works at Columbia University’s writing center (where she can pursue her interest in writing studies). Overbaked & Underproofed lets her obsession with evaluative language and the currency of opinion merge with her interest in popular TV shows and their structural formulas and language use.

Maria is responsible for assembling all team members’ contributions, maintaining and shaping the overall narrative of the project, editing verbal content, and developing the Bingo Game.

DATA MANAGER & LINGUIST: TEDDY MANNING

Teddy Manning (any pronouns) is a computational linguist and Master’s student at The Graduate Center, CUNY. They have a BA in Linguistics with a minor in Deaf Studies from Boston University and are currently doing research in authorship attribution, stylometry, and transgender dialectology on Project Map Lemon through the EVL Lab at Duquesne University. Their research interests include quantitative linguistics, the aforementioned authorship attribution and stylometry, and textual analysis. With the OB&UP project, They are conducting a textual analysis of The Great British Baking Show, naturally.

Web DEVELOPER: RC

RC is currently a Digital Humanities graduate student at The City University of New York (CUNY). She graduated from UT Austin with a BBA degree. Her professional career started in consulting, followed by corporate finance, and now data science. She teaches occasionally and also works with an NGO that focuses on Black healthcare bias. Her research interest lies in environmental and climate Justice, as well as gender studies. Her primary project responsibility is Web Development. Her secondary project responsibilities as a collaborator include project management, text analysis, and content creation.

Researcher: Nuraly Soltonbekov

Nuraly Soltonbekov is a Political Economist with a minor in Computer Science and a graduate of Kingsborough Community College, and Columbia University. He is also currently enrolled at NYU for a master’s in History. He is fond of research and the big questions that involve processes in historical narratives. He is also a former service member of the US armed forces and does speak Russian, and Turkish dialects which helped a lot in his military career. He was part of the HUMINT team, meaning human intelligence gathering at Fort. Carson, CO. His language skills were essential in research and gathering of information for the Department of Defense and helped to create manuals in disinformation. His coding skills are intermediate and he has not coded in a long time but it is still his passion as is history and economics. His most proud work of research had to deal with disinformation in the Soviet Union and he will always talk about it when given a chance. He is an introvert, and that is why he chose a subject that is more conducive to introverted people.